This is a rather weak episode from season two of "Space: 1999". Sadly, however, a weak one is actually pretty good for the second season, as the series had long 'jumped the shark' and there was a huge difference in quality of these newer episodes. The beautiful special effects of season one were gone--only to be replaced by monsters in rubber suits and a lot of episodes recycled from TV's "Star Trek"--which coincided with Fred Freiberger (also from "Star Trek") being brought on as producer and occasional writer. While another review said that this is particular episode was a re-write of a Trek episode, to me it was far less a blatant rip-off and more a substantial reworking of the story idea. So much was new that I didn't mind the similarities.
Koenig and Carter land on a shiny ball of aluminum--at least that is what it looked like when seen from Alpha (talk about crappy special effects!). There, Koenig is replaced by a mirror-image lookalike that is willing to destroy Alpha in order to revive a dormant civilization. Oddly, it took a while to see that this maniacal Koenig look-alike was not the real thing.
Apart from some terrible special effects and some silly acting by Martin Landau, this is a watchable but far from inspired episode of "Space: 1999". The bottom line is that if you are a nut like me who wants to see them all, then by all means watch this light-weight episode. But, if you are not so inclined, keep looking--you could do better with your time.
Koenig and Carter land on a shiny ball of aluminum--at least that is what it looked like when seen from Alpha (talk about crappy special effects!). There, Koenig is replaced by a mirror-image lookalike that is willing to destroy Alpha in order to revive a dormant civilization. Oddly, it took a while to see that this maniacal Koenig look-alike was not the real thing.
Apart from some terrible special effects and some silly acting by Martin Landau, this is a watchable but far from inspired episode of "Space: 1999". The bottom line is that if you are a nut like me who wants to see them all, then by all means watch this light-weight episode. But, if you are not so inclined, keep looking--you could do better with your time.